Small Company Trade and the Gold Coast: The Swedish Africa Company 1650-1663

In: Itinerario: international journal on the history of European expansion and global interaction, Band 16, Heft 1, S. 57-76

Abstract

The Swedish Africa Company (Svenska Afrikakompaniet, SAK) was a chartered trading company which conducted a limited and short-lived trade in the middle of the seventeenth century. Its political and economic significance for Sweden itself was negligible, and in West Africa the Company was one of the smallest and shortest lived of trading companies. At first glance, the SAK appears to be merely a historical curiosity and therefore outside the interest of scientific research. Yet closer examination reveals that the Company was actually quite profitable. An understanding of how t i achieved its success will surely add to our knowledge about European trade in West Africa.